Residents want to preserve Stonington Borough government
— Don’t dissolve the
Stonington borough.
That was the message sent by the 70 people who attended an Aug. 24 forum on the future of the borough and then filled out a survey about how they should address the shortage of residents to run borough government.
About 70 percent suggested the borough instead look to make its government more efficient and sustainable.
That means the borough will now consider forming a charter revision commission to suggest changes to the way the borough operates.
“As I explained at the meeting, undertaking charter revision is serious business and not to be undertaken lightly. The process is dictated by state statutes and can take well over a year. Nonetheless, it seems clear that the time has come to give charter revision serious consideration. In the next few months, the Board of Warden & Burgesses will discuss this option and reach a decision,” borough Warden Jeff Callahan wrote in the announcement of the survey results.
While forming a charter revision commission allows members to look at all aspects of the charter and make recommended changes, in the end the Board of Warden and Burgesses would decide which ones would be presented to voters for a decision.
Callahan said further input from borough residents on the issue, either in writing or in person at board meetings, is encouraged.
At the Aug. 24 forum Callahan said
North Stonington — Despite an unexpected extra three days of summer vacation for students at North Stonington Elementary, school was back in session on Tuesday afternoon, with few signs of last week’s last-minute reshuffling.
The building was closed after air and dust samples in three rooms showed high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, a suspected carcinogen, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The elementary school was quickly reorganized to move instruction out of those three rooms.
Books, classroom supplies and other items were vacuumed and wiped clean of any suspected contaminants before being moved out of the three closed spaces: the music room, the library and a room that housed math interventionists, Board of Education Chairman Bob Carlson said.
Students mostly went about their day as normal Tuesday afternoon, introducing themselves to new classmates and playing outside at recess.
The only visible signs of the remediation process were infrequent silver-colored vertical stripes running down the school’s walls: a special kind of paint that encapsulates PCBs and ensures they don’t get into the air.
In Rebecca Stegeman’s fifthgrade classroom, nametags sat on every desk as students asked her about class rules.
“What happens if you don’t do your homework?” fifth-grader David Levanto asked. “Not that I’m not going to do it,” he quickly added.
Stegeman took the answer in stride, explaining her system of reminding students about homework on a large easel pad at the back of the room and the increased expectations of moving up to fifth grade.
“Most important, your teacher is really sad” when students don’t hand in their homework, she added.
A good deal of shuffling had to take place to make sure school was running smoothly on Tuesday.
Principal Veronica Wilkison said there has been a “domino effect” since the change shifted instruction from the three closed rooms into other classrooms.
Music instruction had been moved upstairs, and the social worker had to be moved downstairs. The library’s books still were in the process of being moved.
Math interventionist Deanna Scanapieco was moved into part of a large fifth-grade classroom, divided with a temporary wall borrowed from Wheeler Middle School, and will use more of the space when she sees more students. She sees up to 75 students in a day, she said.
“Everyone has to have lots of flexibility,” she said. “Flexibility with a smile.”
On Thursday of last week, members of the school board and Superintendent Peter Nero, along with Eagle Environmental, which the district has contracted for the environmental testing, answered questions from a group of parents and teachers about the steps the school has taken to resolve the PCB contamination.
Going forward, if more testing would be conducted, Nero explained, each round of sampling will cost the school about $15,000. While the school building project approved in May 2016 budgeted $3.4 million for hazardous materials remediation, the state needs to first pass a budget.
The full data from the latest round of testing should be available soon, Nero added, and the school has “complied completely” with everything the EPA and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has asked so far.
Carlson added that the school board will form a subcommittee to see how they can fast-track further testing for PCBs and how they can make the testing information easily accessible.